Palm-vein biometrics uses near-infrared light to capture palm-vein patterns in a person's hand, which serves as their identity to the systems. A user would hold his hand over a small scanning device attached to his computer that reads the pattern and matches it to a database of preregistered users. Unlike fingerprint scanning, palm vein is contactless, meaning the user doesn't touch any devices and risk leaving behind a "footprint" fingerprint that could be accessed or stolen.

"As the new generation of information seekers primarily accesses news and other content through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, HUD deemed it essential that the Department get up to speed on today's popular channels of communication," HUD wrote in a press release.